1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a pizza oven and, more particularly, to a pizza oven that has an improved performance and method of operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many prior art pizza ovens employ one or more cooking stones disposed above a heater. The stones are typically mounted on a thin sheet of metal that faces the heater. The metal sheet prevents fragments of the stones from dropping downward toward the burner elements of the heater. When the pizza oven is used to cook pizza, the heater is operated at a high flame to heat the stones to a cook temperature.
After the pizza oven has been idle for awhile, it is typical to either turn down the flame of the burner elements or turn them off. In the case where the flame is turned down, a thermostat controls temperature in the region above the stones. However, the lower bypass flame continues to apply heat to the stones. The stones absorb the heat and tend to overheat. When a pizza is cooked after an idle or bypass mode, the burner is reset to the higher flame. This causes the stones to heat to even higher temperatures, with the result that the pizza bottom burns. Turning down the thermostat set point does not solve this problem for two reasons. First, the stones continue to absorb heat. Second, the oven air temperature will then be lower in the region above the stones. The result is burnt pizza bottoms and partially cooked tops.
For the case where the burner elements are turned off for an idle mode, the stones can lose so much heat that a pizza cooked after the idle mode has an undercooked bottom.
Thus, there is a need for a pizza oven that, after an idle mode, cooks a pizza without either undercooked or overcooked (burnt) bottoms.
According to the method of the present invention, a burner heats a cooking stone in a pizza oven with a high flame in a cooking mode and with a low flame in an idle mode. A heated airflow is directed to heat a region above the stone to a top cooking temperature during both the cooking mode and the idle mode. The burner is throttled during both the cooking and idle modes to regulate the top cooking temperature. A portion of the heated airflow is directed during the idle mode along a bottom surface of the stone to thereby reduce heat transfer from the low flame to the stone. This prevents overcooking or under cooking of a bottom of a pizza during an ensuing cook mode.
A pizza oven according to the invention includes an oven chamber with a cooking stone disposed therein for cooking pizza. A heater is disposed below the stone. A ductwork is disposed in the oven to supply a heated airflow to a region above the stone so as to provide heat for top cooking. A base structure includes a base plate located between the heater and the stone. The stone is supported above the base plate by a gap that communicates with the ductwork to direct a portion of the heated airflow through the gap along a bottom surface of the stone.
Preferably, a bottom surface of the stone is situated on a plurality of bosses that extend from an upper surface of the base plate. The gap is a space that is between the upper surface of the base plate and the bottom surface of the stone.